Please read Plautus' The Swaggering Soldier (Miles Gloriosus) . Cite a line from this play that shows something about Roman society or Roman history one might not learn from a more conventional historical source, e.g., something about day-to-day life in Rome, something about Roman values, or something about the Roman sense of humor. Explain why you chose this particular line. Alternatively, note somethng Plautus has done with one of the five "narrative essentials" (plot, character, theme, setting, and tone) that shows something important about Roman history.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
The Swaggering Solidier (Plautus)
Please read Plautus' The Swaggering Soldier (Miles Gloriosus) . Cite a line from this play that shows something about Roman society or Roman history one might not learn from a more conventional historical source, e.g., something about day-to-day life in Rome, something about Roman values, or something about the Roman sense of humor. Explain why you chose this particular line. Alternatively, note somethng Plautus has done with one of the five "narrative essentials" (plot, character, theme, setting, and tone) that shows something important about Roman history.
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I think some lines of Pyrgopolynices telling of Roman life when he is "negotiating" his deal for the divorced lady next door, "Avarice was never in my nature. I have riches enough; I possess more than a thousand pecks of golden Philippics." They sound reflective of Roman life, the elite could grow richer and richer and it never seemed like it could be enough until they all fell down. Sitting on the Senate was a great job for getting rich and at the same time they had to play to the people and say "we are rich, but we do so much more for all of you" sort of deal. I think the ending of the play would be probably in line with the Roman way of thinking, you can't have a definitive ending to matters if they are not enforced with a little pain, it serves as comedy for Romans that are seen as coarse by other peoples,
Louis-
I thought the line "you can take it from me, when a women has mischeif to do, her memory is infallible and indestructible. But for doing agood turn or keeping a promise, she'll suddenly become so forgetful she can't remember a thing about it" I thought described how some roman men believed women were not good for much. I thought the soldiers character was funny on how he was so high on himself that in the end he is fooled by the rest of the cast. Maybe it's a lesson to always be on your guard and not to be so sure of yourself you end up overlooking a situation.
"when you've climbed out of a deep well nearly to the top, that's the time when theres the most danger of falling down to the bottom again." I like this line because it shows the roman intelligence. It reflects how a wise person doesn't let their gaurd down till the job is done. True back in 100 bc, true now in 2008.
A few lines that I find to be funny would be with Palaestrio and Sceledrus. These two men are going on about what Sceledrus saw and after Sceledrus is done Palaestrio says things like "Go and get your eyes gouged out, will you, for seeing what was never there to see." and "I wouldn't give a rotten nut for your life now." For some reason this seems to be something that might be humorous to the Romans. It might seem a little crude, but you could see someone saying something like this today, only just in some different words.
Eric Bengs
I think the tendency of Romans to be descended from gods and godesses is well reflected in the quote
"...I am a grandson of Venus." Many Romans claimed divine descent. Even Julius Caesar (and the rest of the Caesars) claimed to be descended from Venus. Pompey, on the other hand, claimed descent from Poseidon. This even goes back to stories regarding the origins of Rome.
Cassandra Stangeland
i think the begining is fairly funny, and think that it may be an example of roman humor, the bosting of ones victorys and all. especaly the lines when artotrogusis telling Pyrgopolynices of what he heard women saying and them saying how good looking he is,
then Pyrgopolynies says "It realy is a bore to be so good-looking" i think this is funny, becosue he is interested enough to hear what they say about him but then acts like its anoying, the self absorbed attitude is fairly humorus.
the seeking of making oneself so much better, gaining victory and i think thats why the romans would find it funny and why it woudl be in this play, to over exagerate the big headedness makes it funny.
I think that the line "Let the god goad me to a gallows if I'll put up with this sort of slavery any longer" shows us that not of all of the Romans believed in slavery. This shows that some people actually have morals that modern people have today and they don't promote slavery.
"I was a fool To buy you and a bigger fool to keep you." I see a good similarity between a Roman slave holder and an early ninteenth century American slaveholder. It is said that there is a comparison between the Roman writer Plautus and the American writer Frederick Douglas. I can see this. I read the Douglas book about his life as a slave. I can see some things that are common in both books. Alex Mason
My favorite line regarding humor was when Artotrogus quoted the girls talking about Pyrogopolynices. "Is he Achilles?" "No, his brother." I don't know why but a line as simple as this made me crack up. I found it funny that when talking about how great they are they reference one of the greatest Greek warriors. And I could just picture him answering sarcastically but the girls believing him and continuing on about how great he is. This is a good example of how rumors get spread, one person says some in humor but the other people take it seriously.
I really like the Qoute that best describes rome and any empire as a whole, "when you've climbed out of a deep well nearly to the top, that's the time when theres the most danger of falling down to the bottom again." This shows me that Romans are a very philisophical people to me and they have a sense of how history works
Periplectomenus: I shouted after him. 'Hey you," I said, 'what are you doing on my roof?' 'Chasing a monkey,' he said, and vanished.
I thought that this line was really funny. It could just be how I am reading it but I really seem to enjoy roman sense of humour. They seem to be either very obvious or really subtle in their joking and I really was surprised how funny the play was. I think that this could be done as a high school play pretty easily today and not have to be switch much at all to suit todays audience. I also thought that the whole play was interesting to view Roman society. The people who were slaves didn't typlically feel like the slaves that I am used to thinking about in the context of history. Women in Rome seem to have much more power than I previously believed as well. When you hear about Rome you usually get a summary of how the political system works and when finding the disparities between the different people that vote people assume that they are very oppressed. This paints a somewhat different picture about Roamn social life. Sure slaves and women cannot vote but they still seem to hold a lot of influence on day to day affairs.
"My master was at Athens was a young man of excellent character. He loved an Athenian woman, and she loved him; Which is love as it should be." I think that the Romans placed a big emphasis on love and the different kinds of love. This kind of love was between a man and women and was supposed to be special. The writter recognizes that and says that both the man and the women are supposed to love one another with their whole hearts, "like it should be."
"Mind what I say now. Next time you see an intruder climbing about on the roof, break his legs; unless you want me to whip your back into ribbons." "Nevermind if they're up there looking for a hen or a pigeon or a monkey, you just mash them into mortal mincemeat, if you value your own lives." This is interesting to me because it shows the ruthlessness of people back then even. This sounds like something you would hear in modern day time from a gang leader or something like that. It shows how people were willing to go out of the way of the law even back then to have justice be served.
The line I picked is simple and obvious of an analogy but packs so much. "when you have climbed out of a deep well nearly to the top thats the time when there's the most danger of falling down to the bottom again." It's a very wise thing to say. The more you have, the more you are liable to lose. Im sure with the rising and falling of political leaders the Roman people of this time knew this as reality and could think of someone first hand when they hear a quote like this.
-eric ellingson
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